Recovery....Recovered!

Hello everyone,

First of all a big Thank you to all those who have left me comments and who have emailed me out of concern. I must say it has been a tough time but there you go, Im feeling so much better now.But it gave me a lot of time to think about many things, to ponder about things we might not think about in our normal daily busy life. So I have had a chance to look back at my life, and it was a fantastic journey throughout.I would like to thank my parents for everything they have ever done for me, my mum who was the best mum ever(still is)and my dad, no matter how strict he was, has given me ONLY the best. Thank you Ma and Pa for always allowing me to be who I am(though sometimes I had to be 'tamed' so I don't be too much of a trouble!) and most importantly thank you for letting me do Art as my studies even though maybe Maths would have been what you wanted me to do, but to let me do what I want, that is something I will always owe you!!!!It means so much to me.Okay I know I am going on and on but , I dont think I have ever told you how thankful I am to have had the priviledge of being your daugher.

My sister,naz, who has really looked after me during my recent difficult time, I do not know how I can thank you for what you have done but I know I will never be able to thank you enough....And my husband who is wonderful in his own way, supportive in his own way, and all my friends who have prayed for me.Some friends I coudn't get back to but will do so as soon as I can.

Okay now I have also think about my future and I think now I know what I want to do with the rest of my life.I won't say much but let's just say that 'Special Educational Needs' is one subject that fascinates me as much as 'Art and Craft' does! Now, there was nothing that could be compared to my excitement around the Art subject...until I discovered SEN. It has taken me about two years to understand this field in Education but the more I learn the more I want to know, the more I want to do...So I (think), I know where I am heading.I say think only because I fear I do not get there.So a mixture of Art and Craft & SEN is the recipe for me:)

I am also grateful to all those who have brought a spark into my lives, friends lost and found, new friends, and those whom I have never met.

That's all from me for now.Bye and speak to you soon!

Storing unmounted stamps

Acetate and alcohol inks

Beautiful Belle

Hi everyone!

I would first and foremost like to talk about Belle....You can read everything about her HERE. I first came to know about her from Sheila's Blog.I still remember, the first time I came across a blog was Sheila's one and she was my inspiration to start my own. I find her work to be truly beautiful and inspiring. And , when she decided to raffle a stamp for Belle, it blew me away. We all crafters know how much our stamps and other stuffs mean to us, don't we? Now Sheila has been doing a raffle a day, just in the hope to raise some money for Belle. And the stamps are amazing, absolutely beautiful. Isn't this just a wonderful opportunity for us to get hold on some amazing stamps, while helping someone out there??Please support Sheila in her mission as I was really impressed with the kindness of her heart and her generosity, its simply amazing. It's good to know that there is one angel out there who makes life so beautiful.I hope you will support her.

Now, just a little note from me. I won't be able to blog as regularly as I have been recently but will be off only for a short while, maybe a few days while I am sorting a personal matter out. All I need is your prayers....But I have done some projects which I am hoping my hubby will put up for me, so , you might still see new stuffs on my blog. I am on the mend and I need couple of more days to be up and about.

Thanks for reading and please do not hesitate to leave a comment as I love reading from you.

God Bless!
xxxx
Tassy

Altered Art- Beeswax on canvas

I have made this altered canvas which is 20cmx15cm by trying out beeswax using melt pot.To be honest, I didn't expect the final to look like this.For some reason,I didn't expect the candle to dry out as opaque.I thought they would be clear, crystal clear.But anyway, I have used again some lovely images (C1-174) from Crafty Individuals , including the clock, butterfly and girl face The frame rose and roses are from Tanda Stamps. I started by aplying some Distress ink in tea dye colour, and on top of this, I have applied some Distress ink in red brick colour. Then I have stamped some images on the canvas. I have also stamped some images on a nice background patterned paper from crafty individuals which you can find HERE. I found this paper to bring a very natural touch to this project as I wanted to bring some colours within the faces. Then after I have arranged my images and when I was happy with the layout, I took everything off as I knew what will come on first and what will come last, I started to apply the melted beeswax which act as a glue. I noticed that the more beeswax you apply , the more opaque it will appear. I used a foam brush to achieve some lined texture as well. And voila! I quite like this little piece of Art and it was really easy.I hope that this has inspired you to do an altered canvas.

Valentine Card

I have first of all folded an A4 size card in half. I have distressed the card with Distress Ink, tea dye and fired brik. I haven't really done distressing before so I didn't achieve what I really wanted to but hey, there is no specific rule about it anyway, so I thought it was alright. Then I have stamped some swirls images from Figgy pudding set(Basic Grey) and heart stamp from Crafty Individuals with versamark. I then chalked over with earthy colour chalks(browns and reds).

I really wanted to try out faux soldering demonstrated by Suze Weinberg in her Melt Art Made Easy DVD and by Tim Holtz in his An Altered Journey DVD. The minute I saw it I knew I would enjoy doing a project using this technique. So this is my first attempt at faux soldering and stamping into Ultra thick embossing enamel, platinum. Check out Cre8tive online and craftathome for fantastic offer on Melt Art. I was very lucky to get most of my products from the Marketplace on UKscrappers.....It was a bargain I consider myself very lucky to have came across! And I did get a few other bits and pieces from the other above mentioned websites and the service was excellent.

I have used the Microscopic Slide Size Acetate:Ephemera Acetate 1 from Crafty Individuals. These are ideal for the project I was doing.The Acetate comes with a white sheet of paper, so I cut the image I wanted to use, with the white sheet of paper. Then I have stamped some swirl images from the Figgy pudding set(Basic Grey). I over stamped lightly with the free stamp that comes with the craft stamper magazine.I have used black ink all along but because the acetate has some colours on them, when I laid it over the stamped images, you have this nice medley of images and colours. I then did the faux soldering using my thick platinum enamel which has melted in the melt pot. Fun, fun stuff!I wrapped some maroon fibre around it and stick it onto a red card which I have punched, rounded on top and straight border punch at the bottom.I matted and layered onto a maroon card. I have used some microbeads around the top edge to give some tactile effect to this part of the project.

I absolutely like this part of the project, specially this lovely heart embellishemnt which I have made by pouring some melted UTEE onto the non stick crat sheet, then I stamped a heart simage, with intricate design, into the warm UTEE. I held on for a few seconds then remove my stamp to reveal this beautiful image. Stamp was a freebie from Crafty Individuals . This is such a cute little stamp which can be used for Valentine, Mother's Day, Friendship, Vintage...the list goes on.

I was quite pleased with this project. I finished off with a Hero Art Stamp which read Love to you. The patterned paper is from Basic Grey and I wanted to do some matting and layering since the size of the card is quite big. Here you go, I hope this inspires you to try some 3D effect on your card.

Ive got an award!

I received this from Suzanne over at her amazing blog....Thanks Suzanne and good to see you back!

Impressed with....

Crafty Individuals

I have placed this order on Sunday and it came this morning. It was beautifully packed. They were packed neatly in clear bags. I wasn't too sure about the acetate but they are gorgeous and I cannot wait to make some projects with them using my melt pot. See these rubber stamps on the right? well, they were freebies! Yes that's right, a little surprise! And to top it all, the word stamp is free with my order(on offer).The little paper pad is absolutely gorgeous.And trust me, you don't have to break the bank to lay your hands on those goodies. Did you see the price? No? So what are you waiting for?Check them out http://www.craftyindividuals.co.uk/! If you like to make vintage , arty type of projects then you'll love it.

Embossing and beads

I thought I would try adding some beads as embellishment on a card. I always wanted to but was always a little bit worried I won't get it right...but it's not that hard, infact it's not hard at all!So go on, give it a try if you haven't!

I have inked a small area with fluid chalk in a maroon colour, then poured red embossing powder on it. I took off the excess then heat with my heat tool. While the powder has melted and still hot I poured some black embossing powder and repeated the process.The last step I used the red EP again.While still hot I stamped a small swirl stamp into it, holding my stamp in place for a few seconds. When I took it off, it leaves an indented impression.I tore the paper around the image which has an enamel effect. I have cracked the image a few times to give it a crackled effect.I then some beads on a wire and attached it to the back of the embellishemnt.



I have used 7 gypsies to spell thinkning of you...they are really tiny and cute and fit this space perfectly as I didn't think of my wording while doing the card!!

Hope you like it and inspires you!

A Special Award...


I received this award from LiquidIllusion. Thank you....I am glad that my blog cheer you up, so does yours Suzanne!!!I haven't been around lately since I had a lot to deal with on my plate. But, thanks a lot.....

Thank You

This week's challenge over at PCJ is set by Nerdbird's (Stephanie) turn to pick a subject - 'Thank You'



Come and visit us HERE . We do hope that you will be inspired with the DT's examples to create something of your very own. Rather than have the challenge each week based on one medium, e.g cards one week and ATCs the next, we have decided that, as everyone has different preferences that each challenge will incorporate an example for every medium - Cards, ATCs, Altered Art and Scrapbook Layouts. Hopefully in doing this it will encourage people to try things outside their comfort zone.This challenge will run for 1 week and each new challenge will be uploaded by 21:00 on a Sunday evening. Please upload your photographs to our Gallery under 'Challenges' and let us know the materials you used and your thinking behind your creation. Please note: you must be a fully registered and moderated member of PCJ to upload your photographs.Each week the Design Team will choose the best uploaded picture and that person will receive a 15% discount code for our on-line store and sister site, CraftyCarrot.com (should an international crafter be selected, the cost of shipping will apply to the order. Also you must be registered separately with http://www.craftycarrot.com/.



And this is my take for this challenge. I hope you like it!

Challenge 19 on PCJ Website.
This is my take for this challenge and the only elements holding the card together is a brad in the centre and some paperclips at the side. I have made a similar one for my friend at work and loved it so much that I made another one for this challenge where I ommitted any glue.

This week is DebbieN's (Debbie Nicholson) turn to pick a subject - 'No Glue (or tape)'.

Rather than have the challenge each week based on one medium, e.g cards one week and ATCs the next, we have decided that, as everyone has different preferences that each challenge will incorporate an example for every medium - Cards, ATCs, Altered Art and Scrapbook Layouts. Hopefully in doing this it will encourage people to try things outside their comfort zone.This challenge will run for 1 week and each new challenge will be uploaded by 21:00 on a Sunday evening. Please visit PCJ website to upload your photographs to the Gallery under 'Challenges' and let us know the materials you used and your thinking behind your creation. Go to the papercraft junkies website for more details.

There is a massive sale at Crafty carrot . Have a look if you dare.

I hope you like my card.

Sad but true...

Hi everyonen,
I just wanted to share this experience with you so that you know that there are some sick people out there who has got nothing better to do than hacking into people's emails. My email which I normally use and which I had on my blog has been hacked recently. I opened a new email account and emailed my origin email and asked blatantly who is doing this and why. To my great surprise, whoever it was replied to me as 'Gmail Admin' saying it was a problem with the server and I was given a new password. Now Gmail admin would never reply to me using my email, they would normally use a no-reply system and anyway, who would bite this?

Then the next minute, the second email I have just created got hacked too!I managed to devise a system of recovering my password asap.Now everything is in place and Im just amazed of the extent people go at times..! Sad , really sad.

Now I have learnt from my mistake so this is a piece of advice I can give you. On your comments section, choose to moderate your comments so you get to delete any comment you don't want. And always make sure of the secondary email you have used when you are creating your email, so that if you have to recover your password, you can do so by accessing the secondary email asap.

Anyway, I have spent loads of time to sort this out and I hardly have any time to sort other bits and pieces before going back to work on Monday!Have a great week end and see you soon!

New Year's Resolutions

Happy 2008 and thank you to evveryone who visited my blog in 2007 and who has supported me all way through. A big TY to Papercraftjunkies website for all the wonderful challenges which have been set and for such a nice crafting zone to share and learn stuffs.

I have a few resolutions for this year but I think I rather not write about them as each and every year, I let go of them a few months down the line....I have asked my friend Sharon to give me an idea if she's got one but if you do have an idea about how to keep the resolutions going please tell me!:)

I have watched 'Derailed' and I think this is a fantastic film. I liked every single minute of it, if you haven't watch it yet, do so, its worth it!

I will be posting some cards soon , so watch this space....

Hello everyone!

Hi everyone and thank you for all those who have popped in to visit even though my blog was quite boring and dead recently.....I had a lot of things to deal with and thank God I am almost back to my normal routine now.
I hope you all have had a nice christmas and wish you all a Happy New Year.
Will be intersting to see what's new on the market in the year 2008 ,in the craft world. The latest gadget is the zutter bind it all thingy...unless there has been some other gadgets I am unaware of!!!!I mean, there are so many things out there and I do seem to always want them all. Im glad I cannot afford them as I do believe it can be very addictive and a whole house wont be enough for them all.

Now, you will see a clip I have made on Alcohol inks and acetate...I had a training at work on how to use Live webcam and movie making. The first thing that came to my mind was to make things like this to be able to record stuffs.I had a hard time uploading them and spent hours working around it and finally managed to see it live on you tube.Its not the best clip ever but I am proud of it. Hopefully I will make better ones in the near future(hopefully!).

This year will be quite a busy year for me, I have a lot of things planned but how much will get done, thats the question hey!

Anyway, do check on a weekly basis to see the Papercraft junkies weekly challenges, on Mondays.

Bye for now

PS: Special thank-you to Shhh(Sharon). I wont say much but thanks for your support:))